| A beginner's guide to the history of British trade unions |
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| Miscellany - Miscellany |
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AN ILLUSTRATED BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO THE BRITISH TRADE UNION AND WORKING CLASS MOVEMENTS A short and very personal illustrated history of the British trade union movement. (this work began as a series of slides for talks to schools in 1980) Organisations to defend the rights of paid workers, usually set up just for one-off problems, are very old indeed. But it was not until the development of modern capitalism that increasingly larger numbers of people became employees. Now the overwhelming majority of people in Britain are paid workers. Despite many setbacks in recent years, the unions are still the largest voluntary body in society and their influence in bringing about a better life and a more respectful attitude to working people has been huge. The effect of what is usually called the Industrial Revolution on the people of Britain was dramatic. Millions were forced off the land and herded into cities to form the workforce in factory, mill and mine. Even children were worked in the new environment. Above: an early 19th engraving of the inside of a factory, an example of the oppressive conditions workers were subjected to Children were even made to work in coalmines. Their long hours and harsh conditions were
finally accepted as improper only in the report of the 1842 Royal Commission, an official way
of looking into something without doing very much! Children are taken into these mines to work
as early as four years of age, sometimes at five and between five and six.
The ruling elite of Britain were violently hostile to what was known as `combination' of workers, or unionisation. This country was not as we now know it. Freedom of the press was much limited (then as now!), since newspapers were not only very costly - it was a bit like buying a book to buy a `paper - but they were generally owned by rich people and viewed as a business. Much of the press was just as hostile to unions as they have been ever since. The working class were often portrayed as a drunken rabble. Nothing changes! A cartoon from the early 19th century supposedly showing a `turn out, a strike, of trades unionists - as you will see, nothing but a drunken rabble! For a quarter of a century the Combination Acts had kept unions illegal and small. There were about 30 small unions and most trades - coachmakers, brushmakers, mechanics and so on, had a secret society. This could not be ignored and unionism was becoming a more dangerous force an illicit movement. A campaign to abolish the anti-union laws succeeded in 1824. Once the lid was off, many groups of workers acted and a wave of strikes took place to win better pay and conditions. Housing conditions were appalling. Marx’s collaborator, Frederick Engels, wrote a book about Manchester’s working class districts in 1844 in which he said: "whole districts have fallen into a state of dilapidation, discomfort and misery". Engels thought it all an "ever present pool of stagnant desolation, starvation and degradation." A 19th century black and white engraving of the view across the back gardens of slum houses No worker had the vote and only the very well off acted as representatives in Parliament. A tremendous struggle to change Britain into a democracy partially succeeded in 1832. But the bulk of ordinary people still had no vote. Unions began to try to win things, causing a big fight back from the masters, as the bosses were then called. Deference was expected towards the rich and powerful from the ordinary people. You had to `know your place in society, or suffer the consequences. There were few rights and charity was the main form of social welfare. An illustration of a raggedly dressed worker `doffing' his gap to a `gentleman' on horseback. In the disillusionment with politics that followed the realisation that the 1832 reform of voting had only favoured the well off, especially the new class that owned industrial manufacturing, workers once again turned to the notion of trades unionism. The first big general union, at once a federation of older trade societies and a vehicle for the organisation of the new working class was founded in 1833 - the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union.
As the GNCTU grew massively, the masters in Derby planned a showdown. All trades unionists were locked out of their workplaces, until they were prepared to give up their allegiance to unionism. After almost a year of starvation, the workers of Derby conceded defeat.
Symbolic of the resistance by working people was the deportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs in 1834. Six farm labourers from the village of Tolpuddle were sentenced by a court to be sent to Australia for seven years, then a very harsh punishment, considered to be only just a preferable alternative to the death penalty.
The excuse was that they had made an illegal oath, a binding promise. Such oaths had been declared illicit during the struggle against France, in the wake of its revolution. Only an oath to the monarch was deemed acceptable.
The successful prosecution of the men of Tolpuddle suggested that unions were illegal bodies. But the deportation of these ordinary workers was highly contentious and unpopular. Over a quarter of a million people signed a petition for their release and a similar number turned out for a massive demo in London in Copenhagen Fields A contemporary illustration of the demonstration.
The establishment of workhouses in 1834 was part of a new system designed to intimidate what was a new class, the working class, into accepting the factory system. The penalty for rebellion in the workplace and consequent joblessness was dire. But unions were still being formed and were growingIn 1837, workers put a new set of six demands - the Charter. Supporters became known as Chartists.
The six demands were: 1 Universal manhood suffrage This was considered rather bold to suggest women could vote - only toffs and businessmen were voters! 2 Annual parliaments Governments could carry on more or less as long as the monarch allowed it with a new election; this is the only demand not yet won, governments carry on for ages now (well it seems it, anyway) 3 Secret ballots Amazingly (!) people who had a vote stuffed their papers into an open box; there was a lot of bribery - voters were treated to a big piss up and voted for the best party (no I mean Party!). 4 wages for MPs It was not a fulltime job and unless you had wealth you were stymied. 5 abolition of the property qualification for voting You had to be worth something to get a vote. 6 equal electoral constituencies Some seats had tiny numbers of voters, a few hundred or even less, whilst others, especially in the new northern industrial towns were massive.
Six million signatures were collected in a massive petition, an extraordinary feat in a time of mass illiteracy. Detractors claimed that this petition was largely phoney. Perhaps there was the occasional equivalent then to signing `Micky Mouse (!) but there is no doubting the strength of the campaign. Imagine the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, to win the vote for ordinary (black) people there and you will gather the intensity of the fight. Only a minority of working class people could read but those that could read out subversive tracts and newspapers to collections of working people, often in a small community pub! Millions heard the good news of hope for change. A picture of the masthead of the `Charter' newspaper. In Newport in South Wales there was even an armed uprising in 1839 in support of the Charter and the first ever General Strike took place in 1842. Whilst it was poorly organised and co-ordinated, in parts of the north, it was massively supported. Despite the attempts of the newspapers of the day to cast the peoples' struggle as a violent one, it was mostly relatively peaceful. There were differences in tactics and strategy that weakened the movement, even so it was undoubtedly the most successful `single issue' campaign Britain has ever seen and forced the pace of democratic reform. A picture of how the press portrayed the Newport rebellion
Chartism laid the ground for a new approach. To prevent revolution, the elite sought a new strategy. Between 1850 and 1880, Britain became `the workshop of the world. Such expansion of production created jobs and helped prevent the fear of unemployment and poverty. The policy needed more certainty about ensuring plentiful markets for Britain’s goods abroad. The expansion of the British Empire was the result. The potential profits were huge and some could be shared with troublesome sections of the working class. The craft societies that had supported GNCTU and the Charter continued as these movements had formally faded. Whilst working class campaigns for the vote continued in other forms. A picture of a massive demo in 1866 for electoral reform, led by unions
The pressure for electoral reform was great, one demonstration of 200,000 was indicative of the strength of support. With the danger of revolution faded and with modern looking political parties seeking support from the working class, further reform of the electoral system was won for male working class householders in towns in 1867. Chartism had expressed the interests of the whole working class. It had been a political, social and economic movement, even the first party of the working class. Now, there were only the Tory and Liberal parties to choose from.
Governments tried to curb the newly acquired powers of unions by legal restraint. Leaders of unions sought to enter parliament after the 1867 Reform Act, as Liberals, so as to influence this process. The Durham and Northumberland miners were to the fore in this. But tailors, clerks, agricultural workers, chain makers and many others were all involved in action to extend working peoples rights. Nonetheless, unions began to organise collectively in localities to maximise their effect. No less than 300 candidates at least pledged themselves to seriously consider the demands of trades unionists.After 1850, trade unions only largely fought for the interests of skilled workers only. They also had limited aims - wages, working hours and conditions of work. Typically, unions were more interested in the benevolent society side of their activities; strikes were much less common than organising benefits for their members. National unions began to be formed by the process of local societies pooling resources. went back to 1832. (A century later, the union merged with the T&G, now part of Unite.) Unions like these gave their members certificates of membership such as the one illustrated. Members would proudly display these, framed, in their best room at home. It was a sign that they were skilled workmen; generally it implied a guarantee of employment if their health held up. These trade societies were not really mas organisations. In 1850, the United Kingdom Society of Coachbuilder had only 1,500 members. Although skilled tradesmen’s unions prized their craft above their class, this did not imply industrial peace forever. A big engineering workers union, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers brought lots of small bodies together in 1851, after the masters locked their employees out of work, demanding they accept wage reductions. There were lockouts in cotton in 1853, in building in 1860 and again in engineering in 1871. One of the largest groups of workers in Britain was agricultural labourers, who repeatedly tried to establish union organisation; they, too, were attacked by the bosses in 1872 and 74.The next image is a cartoon from the 19th century that imagines the reality that the fabled county agricultural shows and their prizes should really reflect. The sheep, pigs and cattle get better prizes than the poor farm labourer. Even when in work, he and his family only just about get by. The bounteous harvest that nature provides ought to be shared fairly but the ragged farm labourers and his family are only `treated to unemployment and poverty by the portly farm own. Rebellious behaviour of any kind is rewarded with arrest and gaol; emigrating to somewhere like Canada is the best option.
Evictions of farm labourers and their families from their cottages, which were tied to their employment, were a powerful deterrent to union organisation. Until the 1880s, such workers were excluded from the right to the vote by virtue of not being `householders. The grimness of this existence is reflected in this even harsher cartoon. The `happy ploughboy, much lauded in English folk song, is contrasted here with the rich farmer.
A Royal Commission investigated trades unionism in 1867, as these organisations became increasingly effective. The TUC was founded as an umbrella organisation - tiny at first - in 1868. In 1871, a new Trade Union Act gave unions recognition in law. The 1870s were a boom time and unions began to grow. The TUC formed a special committee to liaise with MPs and was able to win more legislation giving union rights within only a few years.Unions would now become a force even amongst the unskilled working class. There was even a name for this new trend - `New Unionism. This was not just a movement to bring trade unions to the unskilled and unorganised workers; it sought a different type of union. A return to the fighting back model became popular. Organising unions was not easy, despite a later image of absolute power, the miners had to fight desperately hard to form themselves in the strong force they did eventually become. This was based on more than one generation of intense struggle amidst absolute determination, that forged deep unity but it was often only based at a county level. A contemporary image of a mass meeting in Durham during a miners strike in 1876- even the intense rain did not dent their resolve.
Coal produced power that was key to building Britain's manufacturing capacity but its ports were absolutely central to the functioning of its economy. The importation of raw materials from the colonies and the export of finished goods were central to the wealth of what was then the biggest empire in history. Yet the workers that laboured to load and unload the massive number of ships involved in this trade were treated appallingly. The work was particularly hard and dangerous, yet it was poorly paid and dominated, especially, by Irish labour it was a despised and unionised workforce. But efforts began to change things, notably in the east end of London, where the Port of London had its docks and the bulk of the dockers and their families lived in cramped and damp conditions. A contemporary image of a procession of the Stevedores Branch of the Labour Protection League
But it was the `girls employed by the Bryant and May match factory in the east end that provided a signal for action. Their strike of 1888 won massive publicity for the cause of better pay and conditions. Horrifically unsafe working arrangements generated sympathy for the `girls' even outside of the working class. Their spirit of defiance inspired millions of other workers and a wave of militancy spread. Here is a famous picture of the match girls. A big strike of London dockworkers in August 1889 followed. This famously and more importantly successfully demanded a `tanner' (six old pence then, perhaps now comparable to asking for a couple of pounds rise on the minimum wage today) an hour pay rise. An illustration of the London dockers march.
The struggle was intense and involved the whole community in the East End of London. The dockers’ processions were, at times, almost like gigantic community carnivals. An image of Father Neptune leading a procession during the docks strike! The dockers struggle was a major turning point for the organisation of unskilled workers and would subsequently and directly lead to the formation of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU or T&G) three decades later. This single strike symbolised the birth of this new mood and many other struggles ensued. Unions could be not just for skilled tradesmen but also for labourers and even women! Aping the style of the craftsmen’s unions, the Dock, Wharf and Riverside and General Labourers Union produced membership certificates of equal beauty and force for supposedly unskilled labourers. It is important to realise that many of these port workers were highly skilled in what they did. They were as proud of their hard work and grasp of the essential requirements of their labour as any time served craftsman. They were proud of their union too. A copy of 1890 DWR&GLU membership certificate
Demands for union organisation and recognition grew. Attacks from the bosses on New Unionism and the solidarity that came from shared struggles saw a rise in interest in the ideas of socialism. All of the new unions were open to all sorts of new ideas. The gains for some were stupendous. Gas workers, who came out on strike the same year as dockers won a reduction in hours from 18 to 8!! The National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers, which leads directly to the GMB, was formed at a meeting in Canning Town Public Hall on 31 March 1889, illustrated below. Addressing the meeting is gasworker, Will Thorne. Ben Tillett and Social Democratic Federation members also spoke. Within four months, the union had 20,000 members and the gas employers were forced to accept the workers’ demands for eight hour shifts. Below: the founding of the gasworkers union in 1889:
Below: apicture of Tom Mann, by the greatest of the new unionists, taken during his time organising workers in Australia
Like Tom Mann, Burns was now convinced that socialism would be achieved through trade union activity rather than by parliamentary elections. When the London Dock Strike started, dockers' leader Ben Tillett asked John Burns to help win the dispute. Burns, a passionate orator, helped to rally the dockers when they were considering the possibility of returning to work. He was also involved in raising money and gaining support from other trade unionists. During the dispute Burns emerged with Ben Tillett and Tom Mann as the main leaders of the strike. (Unlike Mann, who later joined the Communist Party when it was founded, Burns ended up a Liberal and a cabinet minister!) An illustration of John Burns speaking at a May Day demo in Hyde Park.
Trades unionism spread to all kinds of, mostly, manual workers. Tram workers, even when they were employed by local councils, were very poorly paid and treated. Even they began to form unions from the 1880s as this form of cheap public transport began to be established in every town. A contemporary illustration: a conductor left reads the resolution to the meeting some of the union men. Railway workers also organised, their struggle became intense as the private owners resisted organisation but this group of workers increasingly became very militant. An image of how the press saw a rail strike in 1890, the scenes of confrontation at Motherwell station. At the end of 1889, union membership had doubled in a single year to two million. May Day marches were an opportunity to show solidarity and pride in workers organisations. The first May Day procession took place in London in 1890, when around a quarter of a million trades unionists marched to Hyde Park. An early photograph of a May Day march in London
An early photograph of a union demonstration with brass bands and proud workers with their cycles.
To some extent, unionisation was a response to this, a need to defend whatever modest gains had been won from prosperous times was as important as gaining new rights. A cycle of booms and slumps took place as competition for markets abroad grew. This would lead to rivalry between the big powerful countries, a process that ended to the 1914-18 World War.The employers’ response to all of this was an offensive against organised labour. In 1896, lockouts against union organisation spread across industry. In 1901, in a vitally important court case, the Taff Vale Railway Company won damages off the rail workers union for loss of revenue during a strike. Judge made law such as this threatened the very vitality of the new unions by hitting at their financial strength. It effectively questioned the legal right of unions to exist as a powerful force. Unions became desperate to influence parliament once again to change the law in their favour and, in 1900, formed the Labour Representation Committee to support trades unionists, who were all workingmen in their endeavours to stand for Parliament. Demonstrations continued as ever. But many felt that only by getting a voice in Parliament would the unions really be heard. By 1906, the LRC had won 26 MPs and began to call itself the Labour Party. But it was still a federation of interests. You could not join the Labour Party as such; you had to join a union to gain involvement in this new political force. right: the historic emblem of the Labour Party
In 1911 Liverpool dockers were locked out in an intense struggle with the bosses and the government responded by sending 7,000 troops and even two gunboats to the port city! 25,000 troops were also mobilised against London dockers during their 1911 strike. In 1912, the first ever truly national miners strike, for a minimum wage, took place. 5,000 troops were placed in the coalfields but entire communities backed the miners' fight for victory.
Right: the votes for women campaign.
In the four years before World War One, this general trend towards militancy saw unions almost double in size to four million members. Indeed, this tremendous struggle would now doubt have continued but for the outbreak of war in August 1914.Strikes were made illegal under wartime regulations. In time, as officials unions observed the ban, workers looked to rank and leaders. The shop stewards movement was born, initially on the Clydeside, in Sheffield and Coventry. A fifth of a million Welsh miners struck in 1915, as did 80,000 engineering workers on and around the River Clyde.Socialism became increasingly popular. But, unlike on the mainland of Europe, the British socialist movement followed the creation of trade unions and was to some extent inspired by it. The Social Democratic Federation (SDF), which was a Marxist group, was the first body to survive for an extended period. But it was a largely propagandist sect and was not close to trade unions. The SDF changed its name to the Social Democratic Party in 1908 but this did not make it in the least bit like the group of the same name form the 1980s! This SDP was affiliated to the Labour Party and changed its name to the British Socialist Party in 1911. It mostly retained its Marxist character but a chauvinist trend kept caused difficulties. The BSP kept its affiliation but the rightists left in 1914 and became rather like the later day SDP!The Socialist Labour Party (SLP), which was especially in strong in Scotland, Derby and Manchester was a Marxist group with very strong links to the working class, especially the new shop stewards movement. As we have seen, cycling was something of a fashionable activity, and this was enhanced for socialists, when accompanied by propaganda forays to remoter parts, as with these Coventry Clarion Cycle Club members. Below: Coventry Clarion Cycle Club
Groups like the Clarion Cycling Club and other social and cultural movements became very popular.The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a socialist trend within the Labour Party, founded long before it and affiliated to it for most of the modern period except for a short period in the 1930s, when it moved sharply to the left.Socialist organisations were mostly against the war. Opposition to the war grew, although the official union movement and the Labour Party continued to support the war. Munitions workers in Coventry led the city into mass strike action. The government `bombed the city with propaganda leaflets dropped by the newly formed Royal Air Corps. Sheffield was closed down in a localised general strike. Glasgow saw a massive mobilisation of working people over this period. From a major rent strike, led by women, in 1915, to shipyard and engineering strikes. In 1919, the city was on the verge of revolution and the army was even mobilised. In 1918, the Labour Party formally declared itself a socialist party. It opened itself to individual membership but retained its federal character with unions and socialist societies being able to affiliate. The TUC was now 6.5 million strong and the period 1919-21 saw a high peak of struggle.
The early 1920s saw a big trend towards major union amalgamations. The mood for unity brought many new unions about. The United Kingdom Society of Coachbuilders (UKSC) had been in existence since 1832. For much of the 19th century it was not much bigger than a couple of thousand members. It was revamped as the National Union of Vehicle Builders in 1919 and was to merge with the T&G in 1972. A picture of a former UKSC banner, with the NUVB name attached to the top.
In this period, the engineering union, the AEU (which much later became part of amicus), and the T&G were formed. In the 21st century, these two great unions came together to form Unite - the union. The NUGMWU (today's GMB) was also then formed. The AEU was founded in 1920, NUGMW in 1921 and the TGWU in 1922. The campaign to found the T&G was rooted in the unity forged in struggle between the members of the Transport Workers Federation, themselves founder member of what is now the global alliance, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF). The notion harked back to the spirit of militancy generated in 1911-12 and the dream of total working class unity in `One Big Union'. A poster featuring the OBU slogan in the campaign to win members of the independent transport unions to found the TGWU. The amalgamation call to form the TGWU was highly political in its insight: CAPITAL IS WELL ORGANISED EVERY TRADE IS INTERWOVEN AND INTERLINKED. The great industries on the employers’ side stand together! Labour must do likewise. The (amalgamation) scheme allows for the creation of a GREAT and POWERFUL UNION. NOTHING CAN PREVENT IT only two things can hinder it namely VESTED INTEREST AND APATHY. An image of the amalgamation call to form the T&G The T&G was made up of 19 original unions but well over a hundred eventually joined up to form the One Big Union. Pictures of the badges of some of the component parts of the TGWU, illustrated by their membership badges, as follows: The Amalgamated Society of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames
In 1929, the TGWU was joined by the Workers Union, founded by Tom Mann. Consisting largely of all grades in the engineering industry, and general labourers in textiles and building materials manufacture, the WU had become the third largest of the big general unions. Only major financial trouble had caused the takeover and what had been largely a dockers and drivers union would explode into every sphere of working life as the alliance gave new life to the TGWU.
As a point of interest, here is the marching replacement T&G banner from 50 years later, in 1981.
The 1920s and 1930s often saw long periods of depression. But there was also much struggle to defend new gains by working people. In 1921, a Triple Alliance between transport and railway workers and the miners was formed. This saw a tremendous victory for solidarity in what became known as Red Friday. But there was massive unemployment, especially of men who had only a few years before been in the armed forces. Pictures of Labour Party posters from 1923 that reflect the bitter irony felt by those who had fought for their country, only to find on their return that their country had little to offer them.
The young Communist Party was at the forefront of creating solidarity between workers in struggle. The state knew that a showdown with the unions was imminent and carefully prepared for it. The miners would take the brunt of the manufactured conflict but they had not choice but to defend the important gains they had made. The Tory government planned to take these away from them and their case became a test of whether working class advancement would continue or whether the new found power of the unions could be damaged. A determined effort to squash the small but virile Communist Party was made in 1925. A picture produced then as a campaign postcard; it shows the 12 defendants in the trial of Communist Party officials, f Attacks on wages were common, across the board. But the struggle between colliers and the mine owners that took place from the end of the war to 1926 was legendary. That year, Britain saw an awesome expression of working class solidarity, the like of which was never quite attained again until the early 1970s. The TUC called a General Strike in support of the miners’ demands to loose not a second of the day, not a minute off the pay. Since all print workers came out in support of the miners and the government produced its own propaganda sheet, seeking to sap confidence in the strike, the TUC even produced its own strike bulletin. A copy of the front page of the `British Worker', the TUC strike bulletin.
Solidarity action with the miners was swift and popular. The TGWU sent telegrams out, calling on its tram membership to stop work. A copy of the T&G call to stop work. The strike saw workers effectively take control of their localities and the state mobilised it forces in a tense stand off. A picture of a mounted police escorting a solitary scab lorry during the General Strike. Everyone thought they were going to beat the Tory government. But the government saw the strike as an opportunity to deal organised labour a deadly blow that they were not to really recover from fully until the Second World War and the TUC leaders were fearful of the intensity of the action and sought a way out. The militancy displayed by millions of workers and the threat of force from the state simply frightened them! A picture of an armoured vehicle escorting a food convoy away from the East India docks in London. The Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, claimed the strike to be illegal. After ten days, the TUC leadership called off the General Strike. Tens of thousands of workers were still pouring out of workplaces to join the solidarity action. Most strikers could not believe that the strike had been called off; most assumed that a clear victory must have been won. Most workers were in support of the miners, the problem was to keep them coming out in the ascending waves that had been planned. The movement was not so much defeated as let down. The TUC had called off the strike just as it was becoming most effective, hinting that they had won a decent settlement for the miners. The TGWU alone paid out £291,869 in dispute benefits in the first week; this is a colossal sum, perhaps equivalent to 20 times that amount today. It virtually bankrupted the new union and turned the leader of the T&G, Ernie Bevin, away from a leftish figure into a much more cautious, increasingly right wing figure. The extraordinary power that turning much of the Transport Federation into a single union was concentrated in his hands and the fall out from the strike was to condition the way the union faced for a generation. The miners were left alone to fight their own corner. They were lucky to have a marvellous leader in Arthur Cook, General Secretary of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, speaking in Trafalgar Square. A picture of Arthur Cook, speaking at a rally.
A J Cook, as he was more usually and formally known, was inspirational in the great struggle. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that he was able to keep hundreds of thousands of miners out in the long months they were alone almost single-handedly by virtue of the punishing schedule of mass meetings he kept up day and night in a never-ending tour of the coalfields. Born in 1883, the miners’ leader had first held office in the South Wales Miners' Federation in the Rhondda. An anti-war activist, he was imprisoned for sedition. A founding member of the Communist Party, he played a leading role in the Miners' Minority Movement. He was General Secretary of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain from 1924 until his death in 1931. The Communist Party successfully sought to maintain strong links with him during and after the strike, although he had joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP). When the strike was over, there were 100,000 more T&G members on strike than at the beginning. But victimisation by the employers of strikers was widespread. A great struggle ensued to get decent return to work conditions. Of the 353,000 T&G members who were called out all but 1,500 were able to return to work eventually. Communist Party members were extraordinarily active in strike committees and the local councils of action, which had been set up to coordinate the strike. Scores of full time party speakers were organised to tour the country a quarter of a million leaflets were issued in a two-week campaign in the coalfields. This ferocious defence of the miners earned the Party a big increase in its membership, which rose from 5,000 before the strike to 10,000 by September 1926. Many were unable to stay in membership and were victimised and out of work for years. But Party influence grew phenomenally in many mining villages for a generation and more to come. Even so, the miners had battled on alone for a further seven months until hunger brought defeat. The Communist leaders were not released until August 1926 (pictured here), so as to keep the most vigilant and most dedicated trades unionists, with the sharpest political analysis, out of the massive struggle.
The outcome of the General Strike and the miners' defeat led to the vindictively strong anti-trade union legislation in the 1927 Trade Union Act; sympathetic strikes were outlawed and, to make it more difficult to build up big political funds, trade unionists had to opt in rather than opt out of the political levyThe policy that the working class must pay for the economic crisis that arose from the failing British Empire continued viciously, despite the election of a Labour Government in 1929. By 1931 there were three million unemployed. A famous picture symbolising the despair of unemployment.
The Labour government then split over the cutting of benefits to the unemployed and right-wing Labour joined with the Tories and Liberals to form a National government. Official Labour candidates opposed the National Labour, Tory and Liberal candidates but only very few were returned. The Means Test brought fear into the very homes of ordinary people. Young people were galvanised in a way not seen for half a century, when their own grandparents had made a stand at the time of new unionism. Young women began to join unions in factories making new domestic goods for the still fairly sheltered middle class. Young women also moved into the unemployed campaigns. A picture of the women's contingent of the 1934 March, which started from Derby. The main section of the 1934 march started out from Glasgow on 22 January 1934 and reached Hyde Park on 25th February. As with all the later NUWM marches neither the Labour Party nor the bulk of the national union movement supported it. But local union branches and many co-operatives did help out. Where this was not forthcoming, marchers slept and ate in workhouses, making this an occasion for local campaigning. Police harassment of the march as it came into London led to the formation of the National Council for Civil Liberties, today’s `Liberty. Concessions were won by the massive sympathy for the NUWM's struggle, including the reinstatement of the 1931 cut in unemployment benefit.The small town of Jarrow in the north east of England symbolises in retrospect the acceptable face of the unemployed movement. With massive unemployment in the town a massive march to London in 1936 received enormous sympathy. This is the one march most well known to history. But it was the smallest, least effective and rather apolitical. A picture of the Jarrow marchers.
As well as the fight aginst joblessness, the 1930s was a period well known for the intense anti-fascist struggles. The struggle against British fascism saw its most intense at the battle of Cable Street (see below). But the most influential of these battles was the international campaign to save the democratically elected government in Spain. Fascists in and out of the armed forces of Spain launched a vicious civil war to overthrow the Republican government. This was not an especially left wing government, forces ranging from the strong but relatively small Communist Party to what we might think of as something like a Liberal Democrat were united in the Popular Front that had won the election. Though the agreed programme would have seen many benefits to ordinary people and it is more than evident that the steadfastness of the Communist in the struggle in Spain and in its defence caused a massive rise in their popularity and support both in Spain and across Europe.
A modern mural celebrating the battle of Cable St.
 The plight of the Spanish people disturbed people everywhere, especially when the German Luftwaffe - following the example of the Japanese war on the Chinese people - treated the war as an experiment on how to conduct air raids on civilian population. Lessons they learned in the application of such terror methods were later to be employed across Europe, including Britain.
But, because of the policy of non-intervention, the Republic of Spain even tried to stimulate a response of even-handedness from powers like Britain and France by withdrawing the International Brigades. It would do no good, by the beginning of 1939, Spain was broken and the world was headed for war. But none of those who were present to hear the powerful words in tribute to the Brigades spoken by the extraordinary and world-famous Communist leader, `La Pasionaria', or Dolores Ibarruri, would ever forget the experience. Famous sayings of her's, such as `they shall not pass' and `better to die on your feet than live on your knees' resonated throughout the world across the next decade. Many like Jack Jones, a future leader of the TGWU, returned to their own countries determined to fight for a better world. Both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy send massive armed forces to assist in this process. The governments of the west adopted a studied `neutrality' that saw a refusal to sell military supplies to the legitimate government of Spain, a stance that effectively gave Spain up to Fascism. But not before thousands of progressives from across the globe volunteered to fight in Spain in assistance of the extraordinary resistance of the ordinary Spaniard. Some two thousand Britons fought in the International Brigades, most of them unemployed workers or trades unionists, contrary to a perception that these were mostly intellectuals. Most of these had been mobilised by the Communist Party and it was even illegal in Britain for its citizens to enter the war. The Second World War (1939-1945) brought new problems but also opportunities as unions became central to winning the war. Joint production committees in every workplace accepted the vital role of workers' representative bodies for the first time. The Herculean struggle against Fascism had been presented as a fight for democracy. Millions of people had been inspired by the Red Army and by anti-fascist resistance groups. It was inevitable that voters would translate their recollection of the horrors of the pre-war period into hopes for the future.In 1945, Labour won a commanding majority and proceeded to introduce a free National health Service, public ownership of the railways, coal, gas and electricity, a free education system and fairer national insurance, welfare and unemployment benefits. Labour's mandate was to introduce the Welfare State that would protect every person, from `the cradle to the grave'. These were enormous gains for working people.Nationalisation was seen initially by many working people, especially miners and railway workers, as a step forward. But the form public ownership took was bureaucratic and mirrored private industry. Most nationalised concerns were ones that capitalism could not run at a profit and still deliver proper public service.
A picture of a worker painting out the private company logo, GWR, from a lorry now owned by the people.
Regrettably, the machinations of international power politics saw the US and Britain lead a trend to break up the wartime alliances. The Cold War set in from 1947. Trade unions became pawns in the larger game. Anti-communism became frenetic; it was not only in Hollywood that a witch-hunt ensued. In Britain, civil servants lost their jobs because of their politics and most unions brought in bans and proscriptions on Communists holding office in the union, even as a shop steward. This weakened working class unity.Trade unions stabilised and grew phenomenally, as part of the fabric of British civil society in the long period of what was largely a post-war consensus on industrial relations.
 A picture of a typical mass meeting of factory workers, a basic form of trade union collective democracy in the late 1950s and early 1960s.The right wing in the Labour Party had relied upon the block vote of the unions, wielded by powerful union leaders during the 1950s and early 1960s. But things changed, when a new generation of trade union leaders who sought to respond to their members' needs emerged. The T&G saw new left-leaning leaders, firstly Frank Cousins and then Jack Jones, and, in 1968, got rid of their bans on Communists holding office.  A picture of the T&G's leaders of the 1960s and 1970s. Increasing problems relating to a major restructuring of the British economy saw, from the late 1960s onwards, governments seeking to minimise the power that a trade union movement of between 11 and 13 million members had gained. Trade unions fought off many attempts to cripple them. Indeed, struggles to retain free trades unionism dominated the period from 1968 to 1974.
Below: unions demonstrating against state interference in union democracy and practice in 1971.
 But, during the 1980s and 1990s traditional industries were killed off by Tory governments that reversed many of the gains of the post-war period. Despite the difficulties, unions have remained as massive voluntary organisations of working people. Much remains to be done, for working people still have to struggle to safeguard their interests. Poor working conditions, dictatorial bosses and low pay are more than still with us. The challenges may be different but we cannot fully understand our future without understanding our past.
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Without the support of their families, especially the women, success could never have been contemplated. Support for women’s involvement in politics was not by any means confined to middle class suffragette movement, as is often suggested, nor was it merely fixed upon the need to extend the franchise! Nonetheless, this period saw an intense struggle for votes for women.
The impact of the Russian Revolution is difficult to understand at this distance in time. It was the first time ordinary people, not aristocrats and millionaires, had run a government. The impact of the revolution on 
or seditious libel and incitement to mutiny in 1925, following a police raid on the offices of the Communist Party, the Young Communist League and the Minority Movement. 
The National Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM) had been struggling since the early 1920s for the rights of unemployed workers and their families. It had become a household name, especially over the organising of `Hunger Marches' that often were able to extract real concessions over benefits. Massive struggles emerged in 1931, when the Labour Prime Minister split his party to merge with Conservatives and Liberals. Labour was reduced to a tiny rump party within Parliament and many saw the Communist Party's willingness to lead the unemployed in protest as something worth supporting. 
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